Latino Civil Rights Figures: Sal B. Castro

Salvador B. Castro was born in Los Angeles and played an important part in helping students organize during the civil rights era, particularly around the LA Walkouts. He grew up partially in Mexico after his father was repatriated before returning to his hometown. He served in the Army and then went to school in Los Angeles, promptly entering the field of education at first as a playground director and then later as a social studies teacher.

He first ran into trouble when he encouraged students to use Spanish in a school assembly, prompting suspensions of those students and his transfer to another high school. Castro mentored students in the 1960s as they contemplated ways to not only stave off discrimination, but also incorporate their own history into the curriculum.

What did happen in 1968 were several days’ worth of walkouts, resulting in Castro and others being slapped with criminal charges. They were eventually dropped. Since the civil rights era, Castro continued to be an educator, to mentor students around the country and recently had a school named after him.